Have I bitten off more that I can chew!!!! Nearly there

[HE0798]

Well after a couple of months I thought I had better post some pics on here for posterity or my sanity one of the two.

Purchase my 56 Kombi from Dom on a bit of a beer and Ebay moment and after telling SWMBO if I'm going to do this then we are doing a splitty and not a bay

So here she is

The more observant of you will recognise her from Doms posts.



First steps where to MOT her and she only failed on 4 things, exhaust, hole in the cab floor, number plate light not working and one other thing but I can remember.

So here starts my toil

First off ensure that I have the correct PPE, shorts check away we go!!!


Floor came out first, too many patches to repair so a new floor is required.


All the inside panels removed showing the polystyrene insulation below, so off that came.


Corners are in bad shape the, previous repairs had simply being welded over and not done correctly so its got to go.


The outrigger and jacking point completely rusted through to its got to come out.


Decided to start on something else as the rust was starting to depress me



Oh look more rust

[HE0798]

Safaris removed


Parcel shelf removed and I attacked the wiring


Started to remove the doors, the screws where rusted in tighter than a tight thing, broke two screw extractors in the process so had to cut a hinge free


Next I attacked the front cross member which had been replaced with a piece of 4in pipe , found all this mud inside the chassis, any suggestions on cleaning it out?


Cut the cargo door sill open as it was rusted badly finding all this dirt inside


Looks like half a Portuguese forest in the load space

[vwJim]

Plenty of welding ahead of you then.... Have fun.

[HE0798]

That's an understatement, the problem I have at the moment is that the replacement panels are not playing ball, so the simple looking repairs just are not happening

Thanks for the well wishes

[HE0798]

Removed the floor and found that the heater tube was missing also that the floor was from a 67 not the 56 it should be.


Replaced the damage to the chassis from the damaged outriggers, also removed the 4" pipe to find the chassis plate damaged


After a bit of shot blasting found more rust damage to the chassis so cut it out and replaced it.


Found the reason for the exhaust failing the MOT


Remove the lower inner valance, which fought every step of the way


Had to cut a little section off the chassis to completely remove the old valance, made a nice job even if I say so myself




Finally got to look a the A Pillar or what’s left of it, just can't quite work out the best way to fit the A Pillar




Mounting the valance from the cab side, as soon as I get my head around the A Pillar issue


Here is the problem with the A Pillar it’s just not flush as the original, just need to know if this is a one off or all Klassicfabs are the same.

[vwJim]

That's an understatement, the problem I have at the moment is that the replacement panels are not playing ball, so the simple looking repairs just are not happening

Thanks for the well wishes

Simple repairs.... what's that then?!?!

[andy f]

looks like you got your work cut out there

I used the funky green kit on my front end. I'm pretty sure I had to "fettle" it a bit to get it right. Looking at yours I personally ( but I'm no expert ).......If you have good door gaps etc weld in the lower a post repairs in exactly the same place as your original and then "make" the joins fit the best way you can betweeen the front valance and the A post sections. i know it would be nice to have everything fit exactly as it would have originally but I just don't think it happens that way

In fact thinking about it I did end up putting cuts in the Apost repair sections where they meet the Valance to get it right


Good luck with it

Andy

[HE0798]

Thanks for that Andy.

I was coming to the conclusion that I might have to cut it to fit.

I realise that getting new panels to fit to a 50 year old vehicle would not be a simple task, however I would expect newly manufactured panels to fit correctly

I'm waiting for Chris to come back to me at least we can give him some feed back to the supplier that the panels aren't quite fitting.


The next problem is that the wheel arches don't quite fit, I'm starting to think the van gaps are all over the place.

Now if only the weather stay fine I can get a little further

[musclebus]

Hi Nick,

sorry I have not got back to you immediately regarding this but I had to take a day off work yesterday due to fatigue following a month of non-stop working 12-15 hour days without any time off ... I was getting frazzled

I have forwarded the link to this thread onto Gerson @ Klassicfab for his response and I will update you as soon as I have a response from him regarding it (in my experience of fitting these the outside lips / edges of the lower inner valance can be squeezed 1mm each side to meet the edges of the A Pillar connector piece for spot welding)

All the Best .... Chris

[HE0798]

Chris

No problems, I guessed that you may have been a little busy not an issue.

Its not so much the meeting it was more that the front edge didn't lie flush with the remainder of the valance, this would cause problems when I tried to fit the front valance as it wouldn't be flush.

I just didn't want to modify the parts to find out I had the wrong one or there had been a problem in production

As I mentioned above they just don't mate up like the bit I removed.

Hope you recover, I sypathise conpletly with you 15 hour days rule and the joys of owning your own buisness

[nick]

Removed the floor and found that the heater tube was missing also that the floor was from a 67 not the 56 it should be.

has it had a new front clip at some stage in its life? of fried eggs cut into the front panel?

[HE0798]

Nick.

To be honest the bodging I've found it could be a whole load of years

Basically its been over patched with a 67 floor, I found some of the older floor still in situe, the hand brake had been cut out of an older vehicle and patch welded in place.

Yes someone had cut the fish eye holes into the front.

[nick]

this is going to be a good project ... you look like you know what you are doing with a grinder and a welder... so i wish you good luck and keep the pics coming...

[HE0798]

Grinding and Weldings the easy bit.

Its the putting back together and lining up thats the hard bit

[HE0798]

Roll over jig turned up this morning

This should be fun, no more crawling around under the chassis trying to weld and sand blast things